


[One of] Five things that never happened to Simon Tam

by Hope



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-17
Updated: 2005-11-17
Packaged: 2017-10-02 00:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hope/pseuds/Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>http://hopeful-fiction.livejournal.com/39553.html</p></blockquote>





	[One of] Five things that never happened to Simon Tam

*

It’s Kaylee’s scream that brings them running this time, and when Mal gets there behind Jayne and ahead of Zoë he’s sees that Kaylee’s pressed up against River’s door, one hand holding onto the rails alongside it as if for dear life, the other held up to her mouth, shaking all over. The door to the Doc’s bunk is open, and when Mal turns his gaze from Kaylee to where she’s still staring he sees Jayne’s posture sag, his head drop, jaw tighten as he shakes his head and steps aside for Mal.

She’s cradling her brother, her sprawled out on the bed behind and him all odd angles, tense, eyes staring. She’s crooning a little as she pets his forehead and she doesn’t stop the soft noise as Mal steps into the room, doesn’t even stop it as she glances up to give him a look that threatens violence if he comes any further. Mal knows well enough by now that that ain’t a look to be not taken seriously. Maybe now more than ever, gauging by the sick feeling in his belly.

Mal forces his shoulders to relax, forces himself to drain the aggression out of his stance, tries to clear his mind of the panic and rage that’s trying to rise up and make him do something not so smart. Zoë's a steady, still presence just behind him, and that helps some.

"Well," he says at length, when the girl’s stopped her soft singing noises and is focusing all her attention on the lock of hair that keeps falling over the Doc’s pale forehead. "Ain’t this a state of affairs." There’s a tickle of pride somewhere at the back of his throat at how calm his tone is. He can hear Kaylee sobbing quietly behind him, hear the creak of Jayne’s belt as he loosens some weapon or the other.

River looks up. Her eyes are clear, returning his frank gaze front-on, unclouded in a way he’s come to recognise as lucid, especially in comparison to the sudden bursts of uncontrol that fly out of her less and less frequently. "I knew it would happen, eventually," she says. "Just never thought…" she strokes a hand over Simon’s open eyes, and Mal holds his breath as the eyelashes flutter at the passing air, unblinking, and the pad of her finger slides across an eyeball. "Well, it makes sense. He’s the same, really. More than the rest of us. Once his purpose is served, there’s not much more to do than lie down and rest."

She leans over, mouth pressing to his forehead while her arm curves around his neck, hand reaching the back and seemingly fumbling a little before the tenseness in his limbs abruptly drops away and the body goes limp, loose, falling away from her face and the eyes slipping closed. She smiles a little, first down at him and then up at Mal. "Will you help me?" she says. "Mother and Father never used to like it when I did my own repairs. Said that something that cost this much money shouldn’t be touched by anyone other than those authorised to create it in the first place." She stands, and Mal hears Zoë shift a little behind him. "Kaylee? Can I borrow your tool kit?"

*

"An android," It ain’t really a question, just something Mal needs to repeat again because there’s a distinct lack of anything else he can say at this point.

River nods. "Non-human. Possessing human features but made up of both biological and technological synthetic parts."

"A--a robot?" Kaylee’s voice is still wavering a little, and she’s rocking a little with the movement of Inara’s hand rubbing her shoulder.

The edge of River’s mouth quirks up a little, and she glances up at Kaylee from where she’s examining the pieces of the toolkit one by one, laying them out carefully on the table or returning them to the case as needs be. "You said it."

"What," there’s an edge of a smirk to Jayne’s voice, and Mal can’t help but scowl a little bit as he watches Jayne swallow his mouthful (ain’t no was Mal could be eating at a time like this) before continuing, "Like a lovebot? Little Kaylee always did like machinery--"

"Hardly," River sends a look his way that has echoes of the withering ones she'd send her brother's way when he asked a particularly ridiculous question. "The K-series lovebot is a dinosaur in comparison to Simon’s advanced processing chip and synthetic empathy generators." She holds a pair of pliers up to the light, angling them to peer along the blades critically. "The lovebot is to Simon what primordial sludge is to humankind."

"Wait a minute, now," Mal still hasn’t formulated an exact statement, but the chain of command dictates that it ought to be he interrogating crewmembers as to the fact that his medic appears to be - well, dead. If he were ever alive at all. "He--You--"

River sets down the last piece, and closes the lid on the tool box. She looks up at Mal, then glances around at the rest of them. They’re all watching her; deliberately not-watching the still form reclining where they left it in the infirmary.

"I’m an only child," she says, and pauses a moment, as if to let that sink in for the rest of them rather than prepare what she’s about to say next. "As I child I was… precocious," Mal’s reminded abruptly of Simon’s introductory speech, his bashful explaining of why there was a naked girl in a crate in Mal’s cargo, and more information than they really needed besides. River’s looking at him, and she’s smiling a little, same as he did. "Some might say bratty.

"It was a blessing and a curse to my parents that I showed a high degree of intelligence from an early age. I could bring them great respectability and reputation; but on the other hand I was… a very demanding child. Their societal duty often meant that the level of stimulation I required was left unfulfilled. So they got me Simon."

She smiles a little again, secretive as she ducks her head down. "He was custom-made for me, with an IQ set to challenge but not discourage me, an empathy chip that could respond to my emotional needs, a non-threatening and gentle demeanor.

"Of course, I modified him. He taught me enough about physics and electronics that soon I could do it without Mother and Father even noticing. I altered his ethical processes that allowed us to hoodwink my parents on occasions when I didn’t want them finding out about my misbehaviour. I altered his biological elements to the extent that if we both fell down while playing, I wouldn’t be the only one who needed a derma-weave for a grazed knee."

_Huh_. Well, that answers that question. Mal opens his mouth again, but Inara beats him to it. "But… he was a surgeon on Osiris. How could they allow--"

"When… When I went to the Academy," River glances down again. "There was no need for him there. No place for him. But that’s not to say my parents thought he should be wasted." She fiddles with a fine-headed screwdriver on the tabletop, pressing the tip of it into the pad of her forefinger. "There’s much acclaim for those who donate high-tech medical equipment to public hospitals. Any Alliance brass you ask would no doubt pick complete lack of human error over the slip of a _real_ hand on a primary artery."

Inara nods a little, accepting the answer. "But he…" Kaylee talks for the first time since she found them, her voice steadier than Mal expected it to be. "He came and found you. He left the hospital on Osiris, gave up everything he had there, and came and found you."

River shrugs a little, starts gathering up the assortment of tools she's chosen. "Some alterations I didn't need to make with spanners and screwdrivers," she pauses again, and Mal gets the impression this time that she's working out what she's going to say, instead of having it all prepared and ready to educate them with. "He--he was always programmed to protect me. His chief function was to ensure I came to no harm. I think I was the only one who wasn't surprised when his nurture processes went above and beyond his original programming."

*

Mal leaves her be for the next couple of days; as do the rest of the crew, for the most part. It seems to have become commonplace for him to (literally) run into someone loitering about in the dining room or halls instead of making use of the huge space of the cargo bay. By the time they all get a little stir crazy, Mal's given up on the idea of abandoning the lower level of his ship, and heads down the cargo bay stairs to where it's empty and quiet. He sees the girl through the reinforced window of the infirmary, sees her perched on a stool and leaning over, peering through a huge magnifying lens angled out on an articulated arm to what seems like a mess of wires, of tiny, black-glass gleaming components, framed on either side by folded-back curtains of bloodless flesh. Mal heads back up the stairs.

On the fourth day he goes into the infirmary and finds her sitting on the same stool, but with the magnifier angled off to the side, the tray that usually holds surgical instruments full of tools and gadgets and empty, coloured wire sheaths.

"Let me ask you something," Mal says, coming to stand opposite. She wipes idly at spots of blood that swell up out of the seam on Simon's torso, then leans in a little closer to stroke the derma-weave over it again. "Does he know? Does he know that he's… not human?"

River wipes over the skin again, and it's smooth underneath. "It doesn't matter," she says, and she sounds a little tired, like she used to after she'd worn herself out from screaming or not sleeping, still not entirely stable. "Simon is… something other than not human. Simon would not be without me. I made him as he is. Without me there… there would be no Simon." She looks up at him, and he realises she doesn't look tired at all. "Simon is mine. That's all that matters."

She sets down the mender, pushes the tray away, and stands. "Will you help me?" she says to Mal, and makes a motion that Mal follows, reaching around beneath Simon's head, holding the skull in his hand, surprisingly warm, and lifting it up enough that she can get her hand behind her brother's neck.

His eyes open almost immediately, and it only takes a moment beyond that for him to speak. "River," he says, and smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> http://hopeful-fiction.livejournal.com/39553.html


End file.
